Protection of animal fibers against the effects of alkaline or acid mediums



Patented July 3, 1934 UNITED STATES PROTECTION OF ANDHAL FIBERS AGAINST THE EFFECTS OF MEDIUMS ALKALINE OR ACID Theodor Wallis, Dessau-Ziebigk in Anhalt, Oskar Falek, Wiederitzsch, near Leipzig, and Paul Virck, Dessau in Anhalt, Germany, assignors to I. G. Farbenindustrie Aktiengesellschaft, Frankfort-on-the-Main, Germany No Drawing. Application April 27, 1931, Serial No. 533,362. In Germany October 11, 1927 3 Claims.

It is well-known that animal fibers such as wool, silk, fur and the like and tissues manufactured therefrom undergo deterioration when subjected to processes involving the use of alkaline liquors or even in some instances of acid liquors.

As examples of processes in which this undesirable action of alkalies or acids ordinarily occurs, we mention, for instance, wool scouring, the dyeing of wool or silk with vat colors, the dyeing of wool or silk with sulfur colors, degumming silk, killing and dyeing furs, the dyeing of wool or silk with acid colors the mordanting of wool with chromic acid, the carbonizing of wool and soon.

Various substances such as ammonium compounds, albuminates, varieties of sugar or waste liquors from sulfite cellulose have been proposed for protecting the material from this undesirable action of alkalies and acids.

The objects of our present invention are new and more eflicient preparations having an excellent protective action upon animal fibers, fur and the like. These new preparations are characterized by a content of magnesium and of an additional organic compound, namely sulfite cellulose waste liquor preventing any precipitation of magnesium oxide or hydroxide by alkalies within the limits of concentration and temperature suitable for the treatment of the fibers.

Other agents intended to produce special effects during the treatment in question, may be added to the fiber protecting agents.

The use of the protecting agents containing a magnesium compound of the present invention produces a better protection of the fiber than with that arrived at when using the additional substances alone, because the latter either have no protective action at all or, when they are fiber preservatives themselves, can be utilized in combination with a small amount of the magnesium compounds in order to obtain the same effect with a considerably smaller quantity of the. active substance.

The fiber protecting action is produced in alkaline as well as in acid treating baths; it manifests itself by an improvement of the tensile strength and the elongation and also by a loosening of the fiber, the latter being known as a soft feel or handle.

In the following some formulae are given showing the composition of such protecting agents; the parts being by weight, unless otherwise stated. Example 1.100 parts of sulfite cellulose waste liquor free from lime and concentrated by evaporation so that its specific gravity is about 1.27, containing 5% of MgO in form of any magnesium salt.

The following example illustrates the application of the fiber protecting agents.

Example 2.In the dyeing process 200 grams of half-wool are dyed for 1 to 1 /2 hours at 30 C. in a dye bath containing 10 grams of sulfur black (cf. Schultz Farbstofi'tabellen, 6th edition, 1923, No. 720), 10 grams of crystallized sodium sulfide, 40 grams of sodium sulfate per liter and 3-5 grams of a fiber preservative as set forth in Example 1. The wool is subsequently dyed in the usual way with acid dyes. The dyed half-wool has a full and soft feel while the halfwool dyed without a fiber preservative has a hard feel which is considerably less improved by the addition of sulfite waste liquor only.

It is obvious that our invention is not limited to the foregoing examples or to the details given therein. As pointed out above, our fiber protecting agent may likewise be added when scouring wool, dyeing wool or silk with vat colors, degumming silk, killing and dyeing furs and so on.

What we claim is:-

1. The improvement in processes for the treatment of wool, silk, fur and other fibrous material in liquid media consisting in the addition to said media of sulfite cellulose waste liquor containing a magnesium complex compound of sulfite cellulose waste liquor.

2. The improvement in processes for the treatment of wool, silk, fur and other fibrous material in liquid alkaline media consisting in the addition to said media of sulfite cellulose waste liquor containing a magnesium complex compound of sulfite cellulose waste liquor.

3. As a protective agent for animal fibers a sulfite cellulose waste liquor free from lime, having a specific gravity of about 1.27 and containing 5 percent of MgO in form of a salt.

THEODOR WALLIS. OSKAR FALEK. PAUL VIRCK. 

